Complaining

I don't know if everybody feels the same way, but I always feel this pressure to be happy when I blog. It's like you're only allowed to post happy things with a positive attitude. Sometimes when I'm feeling more negative, I just don't post. But today, I'm going to vent a little.

Let's start with running. What's with my legs hurting all the time? I barely run, but when I do my shins bother me. And now, I kind of feel them bothering me all the time. They feel worse then they did at the height of marathon training, and I've only run 6 miles this week! Today I walked by the gym, and saw a few basketballs sitting there. Since nobody was looking I thought I'd fool around in there for a bit. Just running around and jumping for a few minutes was hurting me. I remembered reading about this jumping test, where if you jumped up and down on one leg. If it continued to hurt, it was supposed to mean you had a stress fracture. So I tried this, and both legs really hurt! In the same spot on both sides: the medial shin a few inches above the ankle. Do I think I have stress fractures on both sides? I don't think so. So let's call them shin splints. But I've barely been running for the last 3 months! I've given up any thoughts of a spring/summer marathon, and I'm not sure I'll ever get back to that kind of distance. In the meantime I'm trying to get my 9 races in so I'll qualify for next year's NYC marathon, so I'm not ready to give up running altogether yet. But that might happen too. I'm not happy.

Ok, now a little about swimming. As I continue to say, I am making progress. Today, I forced myself to do 8 laps in a row. Although I had to pause quite a few times between strokes to catch my breath, I did make it without stopping. 200 yards. (Only 4000 more and I'm ready for Ironman!) Okay, so that was good. But I'm still having a lot of trouble with the breathing. Today I practiced just breathing without swimming. I would breath in, then turn my head and exhale under water, and repeat. I tried to keep a normal cycle going. I was able to keep it up for several minutes, but it was uncomfortable. I felt like I wanted to breathe more rapidly. Okay, maybe it was because I had already put in a few laps, or maybe it was because I had come off the bike before swimming. (9.3 miles in 30 minutes, thank you very much!) But it's still pretty tough. I find myself looking at all the old people in the pool, with their totally improper form, and getting mad at them. There they are, swimming in almost a vertical position, with their head above water at all times. (One even wears her glasses!) Since they never put their head under water, they never get out of breath. Ok, they're not very fast. But they could swim a million laps that way, and never get tired. It annoys me.

My cold sore's getting better, but it's still visible. I'm worried that I may have caused some scarring when part of it came off a little too soon (after a shower). It's probably okay, but that's another thing bothering me.

I was going to complain about cops too, but I'll skip that. Instead I'll focus on the other part of "Law & Order", the lawyers. Ok, so I'm a doctor and I'm supposed to hate lawyers. But they really do drive me crazy. (If you're a lawyer reading this, don't even bother getting into a "comment war" about this. I'm not interested.) Because of the way the system works, our society has become an increasingly litiginous society. Why not? In most cases it costs nothing to sue, because the lawyer will take the case on contingency.

So this case is just another one that bothers me. For those of you too lazy to click on it, it's a guy suing Apple because iPod's can cause hearing loss. First of all, it's been a known fact for years that listening to music with any headphones are bad for your ears. Second, Apple includes a warning with every unit. This lawsuit claims it's not "enough" of a warning. And thirdly, but most importantly, this guy doesn't even have haring loss!! He bought an iPod last year. When he heard the reports of possible hearing loss, he sued. He hasn't even gotten tested. (Probably afraid to ruin his case!) He's suing because of the possibility of hearing loss. This is not some poor guy who went deaf and feels he's entitled to some compensation. It's just some guy out to make money for nothing. The sad part is that this will become a class action suit. In the event that Apple would eventually settle, the law firm would get $400 million dollars, and each individual iPod owner would get 42 cents. (And the next generation of iPods would then be $25 more expensive!)

(Big breath....)

Ok. Sorry about that. There are actually a million things in the news all the time that I feel like commenting on, but I generally spare you guys. I try to keep this blog about my training habits, and not my social or political views. Since most of the readers here actually own iPods I thought I could slip that one in! ;-)

Now that that's out of my system, I feel a little better already. I'm happy about my biking performance, and I think the swimming will get there eventually. The running is a concern. I've signed up for a 4 mile race on Sunday, and I think it's probably a good idea to take tomorrow and Saturday off. We'll see how that goes.